


Giving Thanks

by unwritten_muse



Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-09-22
Updated: 2012-09-22
Packaged: 2017-11-14 19:35:07
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,020
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/518776
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/unwritten_muse/pseuds/unwritten_muse
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>An extraordinary celestial event occurs on the eve of a planet's destruction.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Giving Thanks

**Author's Note:**

> Content note: There is talk of extinction of an entire planet of people

The Doctor quickly scanned an advertisement on a telephone pole and nodded. "We're in the right place."

Martha stepped beside him and read:

_Be the first on your block to take the adventure of a lifetime. We all know the world is going to end, so why not go out in a blaze of glory. Book passage on our Empyreal Rocket and grab your one-way ticket to the center of the sun._

"Adventure, Inc. Is this for real?" Martha asked.

"Yes. One thousand people will shoot themselves into the sun in a week's time."

"And of course the world doesn't end."

"Funnily enough, it kind of does. Two weeks from now. Massive asteroid storm, decimates the planet."

Martha blinked. "You sure know how to show a girl a good time."

"Hmm?"

"Why are we here, Doctor? To see the last days of an entire planet of people? That's pretty depressing."

"What? No! No, we're here to see the lunar alignment, or as they advertise it," the Doctor continued, fishing a scrap of paper out of his pocket and reading from it, "an unprecedented lunar light show, the most spectacular celestial event in centuries."

"But their planet's about to be destroyed."

"Well, they started advertising for this long before they knew the asteroids were coming."

"What I mean is, couldn't we see this however many hundreds of years ago, whenever it last happened? Not when everyone I'm looking at is about to die."

"Statistically, I'd say not everyone will die-"

"Doctor."

He turned to face her. "This is a once in a million opportunity. I've never even seen it myself. It's the first time the moons of this world will be aligned like this, and very possibly the last. But if you'd rather go back to the TARDIS, we can always go somewhere else."

Martha looked at all the people rushing around her, the extraordinary bustle of ordinary life. No one seemed panicked or troubled, children skipped alongside their parents or made a fuss about the day's outing. It was so painfully normal.

"Do they not know they're in danger from the asteroids?"

"They've heard it all before. This is a fairly active area; asteroids are always streaking past this part of the galaxy. After a few warnings and dire predictions, most of them don't pay attention anymore."

"Like the boy who cried wolf."

"Hmm? Yeah, that's how most people see the government scientists these days," the Doctor replied, continuing to walk down the street. "Except for the doomsday followers. It's how Adventure, Inc. got started. Every time someone proclaimed the end of the world was coming, they organized a once-in-a-lifetime trip, full of danger and excitement, no guarantee of a safe return. This is the first time they've been cleared for a group suicide, though. The government must be certain of the impending disaster."

"Can't we watch this lunar alignment from the TARDIS?"

"They've secured exclusive space rights for the event. No other ship is allowed near the prime viewing location."

"And you actually pay attention to things like that?"

The Doctor chuckled. "No, not usually. But enforcement around here is pretty strict. We'd end up arguing with some galactic traffic cop and miss the whole thing."

They walked in silence for another couple of blocks, Martha's thoughts never straying from the grim fate of this planet, her inability to do anything about it a sharp pain in her chest.

"If we stay," she began, "if we see this, when we leave we have to do something to honor all of these people."

"Martha, if I took the time to pay some kind of homage to every civilization I'd ever visited that had been wiped out of existence, I'd never do anything else."

"I don't care what you normally do, Doctor. If we get to see this once-in-a-lifetime incredible event because of these people, we're going to show our respects when we're done."

"How?"

"I don't know. But since you know this world better than I do, if you'd stop being so bloody impassive and above-it-all you could probably help me think of something."

The Doctor stared past her, annoyance etched on his face. Martha sighed; she'd never known someone who could be so curious about things and yet close his mind so readily to ideas he didn't care for.

"I'm not asking you to save them."

"Which we cannot do," the Doctor snapped, looking sharply at her. "We can't change what's meant to happen to this planet."

"I know that, hence the not asking. Look, I understand that for you it's often easier not to engage, to put some distance between yourself and what happens to those you meet in your travels. All I'm saying is since viewing this event would be impossible without them, it seems only right that we thank them, memorialize them in some way."

The Doctor looked at the honest sincerity in Martha's eyes, the barely concealed sorrow that so many would soon be dead and she could do nothing to stop it, and his face softened. Sometimes it _was_ important to acknowledge great loss, to stop long enough to pay heed to those who were no more. And sometimes he needed to be reminded of that.

"You're right. We should take some time to pay our respects, do something to say we won't forget them."

"Thank you."

"I'll think about it while we get ready for lift off." He gave her a warm smile, matched only by her own. "In the meantime," he exclaimed, summoning his exuberant self again, "we have a rocket to catch, and two tickets for one of the most extraordinary sights ever seen by any human or Time Lord."

"How did you get tickets, anyway?"

"Oh, I have my sources."

"And this Adventure, Inc. company: they do know how to make a return trip, right?"

"I'm sure they do."

"They don't just specialize in one-way shots at the end of the world?"

"Well, if something goes wrong we'll just have to improvise. Come on!" the Doctor urged, setting off at a jog.

"Improvise? Doctor!" Martha called, running to catch up.


End file.
